Sweet Home Alabama (Go West Young Man part 2)
Before I hit the road today, I stopped at Jim Bob’s fillin station in Mobile Alabama to fill my tank. The pumps were those kinds that have little cylindars that spin around with numbers written on them to tell you how much you’ve spent. On the front of the pumps was a makeshift sign that said “all pumps prepay”, so I walked over to Jim Bob with credit card in hand and said “I need to fill up.” He looked down at my card, looked up at me, looked over at the pump, and said “Go ‘head”. So I did. I felt like I was back in 1979.
Today was perfectly uneventful and after driving a while I realized that, god help me, I was enjoying the trip! This dispite the fact that Desi won’t coorperate with my vision of me in the drivers seat and her in the passengers seat. It appears she has realized that the backseat is more spacious, and she streches out back there. I can’t even get her up front; she loves it back there. Still, to just get out there and drive and drive and drive, listening to my iPod… it’s very theraputic. Didn’t see anyone crash today, but I definetely saw someone I hoped would crash.
I had one snag, but it turned into a non-snag. I got the the HoJo in Houston where my reservation was held. The guy behind the counter was a portly Indian guy. Apparently I was in the mid-eastern section of town. He saw Desi and told me pets weren’t allowed there, but he wanted so badly to let me know that he wished he could allow her there that he immediately went into story telling mode and did his best to assure me that he loved animals. So anxious was he, in fact, that every time I opened my mouth to ask where I might be able to stay with a pet, he assumed (I guess) that I was going to protest his decision, so he kept going on and on. I initially began to get frustrated with him, but luckily my Dale Carnegie training kicked in and I realized that the quickest way to shut him up was to let him talk. He told me about how he love animals so much that he even got in a tiff with the corporate supervisor because he was told to do something about the pidgeons nesting over the driveway but he didn’t want to bother them. He told me a story about how he allowed a guest to take a pet in the room and some other guest btched about it. He told me story after story, and did his best to direct me to where all the hotels are so that I might find one where Desi and I could stay. I felt bad for the guy just seeing how guilty he felt having to turn me away!
But as has been the story of this trip, it all worked out for the best. I went into the car and looked up Motel 6, and made a reservation online. It turns out they all accept pets, and the room is much better and costs less than the ones at HoJo. Plus, after coming here, that’s 15 fewer miles I have to drive tomorrow. The nice thing about driving west is that you get to see the sunsets. The one today was that real nice kind, where the sun looks like a pink ball and you know you’re not supposed to look straight at it but you do anyway because it doesn’t hurt, then you get a headache about 30 seconds later. That kind.
Today I drove through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and into Texas. Tomorrow is my long drive - roughly 750 miles, and when it’s over I’ll still be in Texas. Have you ever seen mile marker 874? Neither had I, until today. Texas is truly enormous. Shouldn’t be that bad; I’ll get an early start and make the most of it. You do a lot of thinking out on the road, and I suppose I don’t do enough of that anyway.
Today was perfectly uneventful and after driving a while I realized that, god help me, I was enjoying the trip! This dispite the fact that Desi won’t coorperate with my vision of me in the drivers seat and her in the passengers seat. It appears she has realized that the backseat is more spacious, and she streches out back there. I can’t even get her up front; she loves it back there. Still, to just get out there and drive and drive and drive, listening to my iPod… it’s very theraputic. Didn’t see anyone crash today, but I definetely saw someone I hoped would crash.
I had one snag, but it turned into a non-snag. I got the the HoJo in Houston where my reservation was held. The guy behind the counter was a portly Indian guy. Apparently I was in the mid-eastern section of town. He saw Desi and told me pets weren’t allowed there, but he wanted so badly to let me know that he wished he could allow her there that he immediately went into story telling mode and did his best to assure me that he loved animals. So anxious was he, in fact, that every time I opened my mouth to ask where I might be able to stay with a pet, he assumed (I guess) that I was going to protest his decision, so he kept going on and on. I initially began to get frustrated with him, but luckily my Dale Carnegie training kicked in and I realized that the quickest way to shut him up was to let him talk. He told me about how he love animals so much that he even got in a tiff with the corporate supervisor because he was told to do something about the pidgeons nesting over the driveway but he didn’t want to bother them. He told me a story about how he allowed a guest to take a pet in the room and some other guest btched about it. He told me story after story, and did his best to direct me to where all the hotels are so that I might find one where Desi and I could stay. I felt bad for the guy just seeing how guilty he felt having to turn me away!
But as has been the story of this trip, it all worked out for the best. I went into the car and looked up Motel 6, and made a reservation online. It turns out they all accept pets, and the room is much better and costs less than the ones at HoJo. Plus, after coming here, that’s 15 fewer miles I have to drive tomorrow. The nice thing about driving west is that you get to see the sunsets. The one today was that real nice kind, where the sun looks like a pink ball and you know you’re not supposed to look straight at it but you do anyway because it doesn’t hurt, then you get a headache about 30 seconds later. That kind.
Today I drove through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and into Texas. Tomorrow is my long drive - roughly 750 miles, and when it’s over I’ll still be in Texas. Have you ever seen mile marker 874? Neither had I, until today. Texas is truly enormous. Shouldn’t be that bad; I’ll get an early start and make the most of it. You do a lot of thinking out on the road, and I suppose I don’t do enough of that anyway.